Marketing Management, 16th Edition

The Modern Retail Environment

Retailing includes all the activities involved in selling goods or services directly to final consumers for personal, nonbusiness use. A retailer or retail store is any business enterprise whose sales volume comes primarily from retailing. Any organization selling to final consumers—no matter whether it is a manufacturer, a wholesaler, or a retailer—is doing retailing. It also doesn’t matter how the goods or services are sold (in person, by mail, by telephone, by vending machine, or online) or where (in a store, on the street, or in a consumer’s home).

The retail marketing environment is dramatically different today from what it was just a decade ago. The retail market is very dynamic, and a number of new types ...